CINCO DE MAYO
by Francisco X. Alarcón
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First of all, Cinco de Mayo
is not at all the official
Mexican Independence Day,
nor does it commemorate the first
fiesta no matter how convincing
beer commercials might sound;
it’s as unofficial as school
children telling jokes in Spanish
in English-only public schools
Cinco de Mayo is a battle fought
in the city of Puebla in 1862;
an outnumbered, outgunned,
ill-trained and very poor
Mexican army under the command
of Ignacio Zaragoza, a general
born in San Antonio, Texas,
defeated the superbly equipped
professional French army sent
by Napoleon III; Cinco de Mayo
became a rally of hope for a nation
Cinco de Mayo is a milagrito
que nunca debió pasar pero pasó;
it’s the full-blooded Zapotec
Indian President Benito Juárez
humming, “Sí se puede”
in his forced journeys
zigzagging the Republic;
Ciudad Juárez is named
after this Mexican hero
who never gave up despite
of facing superior enemy forces
Cinco de Mayo is primavera,
the bluest of skies y se siente alegría
y sí ya casi salimos de vacaciones
Cinco de Mayo is a cry
that starts in the heart,
a drum that keeps calling:
Juan, María, José acuérdense,
it’s Cinco de Mayo
and like any other day,
el Chuy sigue preso
y el Joe is unemployed
y la Rosa is a teenager
three months pregnant,
all confused, lost at school,
and without legal papers
Cinco de Mayo was used
once as a legal deadline
intended to close the doors
to thousands who had come
to this country searching
for a dream, a better deal,
a chance to live under the stars
Cinco de Mayo is community,
familia, a ritual for life,
a collective kiss en la frente,
a rainbow, una empanada,
una canción, un baile, una mirada
Cinco de Mayo is a rally
for protecting our civil rights
against “reasonable suspicion”
of mean-spirited, racist state
laws like SB 1070 in Arizona
Cinco of Mayo is a brown David
facing a menacing cruel Goliath
singing under the clear blue sky,
“sí, se puede”, “yes, we can…”
we can dream a dream of freedom
for all Dreamers and their families
Cinco de Mayo is a collective Moses
saying to Pharaoh and the Capitol court
of jesters, let our people live in peace,
this land is also our Promised Land
Cinco de Mayo is a flower watered
by our people’s tears of pain and joy;
Cinco de Mayo is each and other day,
a lesson of resistance in a era of defeat
© Francisco X. Alarcón
____________________________________________
Francisco X. Alarcón, award-winning Chicano poet and educator, is the author of thirteen volumes of poetry, including, From the Other Side of Night (University of Arizona Press 2002) and Ce • Uno • One: Poems for the New Sun (Swan Scythe Press 2010). His upcoming books of poems are Borderless Butterflies/Mariposas sin fronteras (Poetic Matrix Press 2014) and Canto hondo/Deep Song (University of Arizona Press 2014). He teaches at the University of California, Davis. He is the creator of the Facebook page, Poets Responding to SB 1070.